Formula 1: The Race to the Track

All photos- Toyota Motorsports GmbHCOLOGNE, GERMANY (Sept. 19, 2007) - Formula 1 is, at heart, all about racing. But away from the frenzied 200 miles every other Sunday, a different kind of race is fundamental to the workings of Panasonic Toyota Racing (PTR): logistics. For the team's logistics department, there is a constant race against time to get the cars, as well as hundreds of spare parts and pieces of equipment, to the track on time. Moreover, the challenge does not stop there: Once on location, around 90 team members need food, transportation, hotels and suitable working conditions. This is no simple task for Team Manager Richard Cregan and his staff, who work ceaselessly at the Cologne headquarters to ensure everything runs smoothly.

For millions of television viewers around the world, a Grand Prix begins when the red lights go out on a Sunday afternoon, but for the logistics department, each race starts a long time earlier - before the season has started, to be precise. As soon as the next season's Formula 1 calendar is confirmed, Cregan and his team get to work on booking flights, hotels and, crucially, on planning how the cars will make their way to race tracks on five continents with barely any time to catch breath in between races. This race against time is a characteristic of motorsport at the top level. For Cregan, experience counts when making such intricate plans.  "I believe the groundwork that people have to have to achieve good logistics is experience of the business of motorsport, not necessarily in Formula 1," he says. "You have to set very clear targets for yourselves. We have our plans for the year because we make plans at the start of every season. Once the calendar is finalized from the International Automobile Federation (FIA), we sit down with the different departments, look at the dates of the trucks leaving, when we want the equipment there, and basically we go away and arrange that."

F1 racecars travel to circuits in the upper deck of haulers. The lower decks contai storage bins and work areas for team technicians and engineers.  For races away from Europe, the cars, spare parts and equipment is shipped by air. But for European races, which make up nine of the 17 races in 2007, everything is taken by truck from Cologne across the continent. Cregan says that seven "truckies" are dedicated to filling the four trucks with everything the team can possibly need at the track, with the emphasis being on making sure nothing - from light bulbs to spare engine parts - is forgotten. Two days are spent ensuring everything is in working order and loaded on to the trucks. All packed and ready to go, the truckies drive their cargo across whole countries, covering more than 20,000 miles in a single racing season.